Retail establishments which sell chain, cable, rope and the like, typically encounter a number of difficulties therewith. Because of the wide range of consumer needs, the retail establishments stock a large variety of such items in various sizes and types in order to satisfy consumer sentiment. As a result, a large amount of in-store space must be designated for this purpose. Traditionally, bulk chain or the like is sold in large plastic buckets sealed with removable lids and flipped on their sides for display. Once flipped, the bucket lid in effect becomes the point of purchase graphics medium, and the product (the chain) is threaded through a hole in the lid to make it available for purchase.
Chains sold in buckets face a multitude of issues. First, it is extremely difficult to maintain a tidy appearance at the point of purchase. In examining and selecting a chain for purchase, many consumers unwind and unravel lengths of a number of different types of material. Ultimately after looking over a number of different chains, the consumer will select one and the others are left for store personnel to replace properly. Traditional chain buckets suffer from the disadvantage of not having a means of organizing the tail end of the chain and thus, the tail end hangs down in front of the bucket and can obstruct other merchandise. Second, generally available buckets and bucket lids are designed with functionality in mind first, and aesthetics second, thereby making them a poor vehicle for product promotion at the store level.
There is therefore a need in the market place for an apparatus for chain merchandising which allows the various types of chains to be presented in a relatively neat fashion and with improved aesthetics and functionality.